Plea for £2m to help asylum seeker costs

Aug 18 2007 by Larry Neild, Liverpool Daily Post

TOWN hall leaders in Liverpool last night sent a plea to the Home Secretary for £2m needed to cover the cost of teenage asylum seekers staying in the city.

Unless the Government comes up with the cash, the money will have to be paid by Liverpool households through the council tax.

The shock bill has emerged because the Home Office is not paying enough to cover the costs of looking after more than 400 teenagers waiting to hear if they can stay for good.

For one group of older teenagers the Home Office will only pay £100 a week for each person, even though the real cost to the council is £215 a week.

Some senior politicians fear right-wing elements are already attempting to fuel unrest in the city on the back of asylum and refugee issues.

One leading councillor said the British National Party had started to leaflet homes in Liverpool, including Warbreck, where a council by-election takes place in a few weeks.

Liverpool MPs have been asked by the council to back its plea to the Home Office for more money in a desperate bid to help the cash-starved council, already struggling to meet the cost of paying for its Capital of Culture programme.

Liverpool is earmarked as just one of two UK areas for unaccompanied teenage asylum seekers because the city has an immigration reception centre at Reliance House on Water Street to handle arrivals from overseas.

Last night, Cllr Paul Clein, executive member for children’s services said: “Liverpool is being penalised by the Home Office because of an accident of geography. Because we have a government reception here, the unaccompanied children are sent to Liverpool. It is a scandal that we are having to subsidise the Home Office to the tune of a seven figure sum. We are happy to help these unfortunate young people and have an excellent and proud record in doing so. But in the interests of fairness we should not have to pay as a city for performing what is a duty for the rest of the country. It is wrong for our taxpayers to be penalised because we are being short-changed by the Government.”

A spokesman for Liverpool City Council said last night: “This city has a proud and long tradition of helping vulnerable people and we have developed an experience in offering support to young asylum seekers.

“Unfortunately our legal obligations to offer a required level of support costs more than we receive to cover the cost of looking after these young people.”

Stuart Smith, the council’s executive director for children’s services told the council’s executive board of the financial dilemma facing the city council.

Mr Smith revealed there were currently 406 unaccompanied asylum seeking children staying in the city, of whom 140 are aged between 18 and 19. The costs of looking after under-18s is met by the Home Office, but the financial burden has arisen because so far the Government will only pay £100 for each teenager aged over 18. He said the total cost of looking after unaccompanied children added up to £1.9m more than had been made available by the Government.

It represents the biggest single item of a potential multi-million pound overspend within the council’s children’s directorate this year, currently estimated to be almost £4m.

Only Kent on the south coast is in a similar position to Liverpool. It is the only other UK district to receive unaccompanied teenagers.

City council leader Warren Bradley said the council was also making a plea for help through the Local Government Association.

Ewan Roberts of Asylum Link in Liverpool said last night: “It is wrong that the city should carry the can financially because it is a major processing area for asylum cases.

“Unless the Government and local authority can sort this out there is a risk it will give an excuse to pond life people to preach hatred. There is an incredible amount of good work in Liverpool towards very vulnerable young people. The Home Office should ensure the scheme is cost neutral to the council.”

larryneild